I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 26: Run Away, Prince (Part )

A political storm has broken out in Neyama. As soon as the storm started, dozens of people have died, and it will continue and more people will die.

However, this matter has nothing to do with Chris, who was hundreds of kilometers away from Neama three days ago.

On the one hand, it was because Chris ran decisively and quickly.

On the other hand, the most important reason is that the little prince of the Bagniya Kingdom is just a small shrimp in the eyes of those big men. He has no power, no identity, and his value of use is not high.

No one cares whether he ran away or died.

As for the so-called assassination attempt by him, this is even more a fantasy. Everyone knows that Chris grew up in the Bright Seminary and never went out. How could he have power in the outside world?
Therefore, no one believed the story that the little prince of Bagnia assassinated the eldest prince.

For various reasons, Chris was able to escape successfully. If he had hesitated for a day or two, he really would not have been able to escape... There would always be someone who would attack Chris in order to muddy the waters.

Anyway, it's just a small shrimp, and the cost of catching and killing it is almost zero, so why not give it a try?

Chris didn't have much political talent. When he was in the past, he relied entirely on brute force to get around. But after going through a lot of things, he had some experience and knew that the situation was not good. He was in the center of the storm and was in great danger.

When you have a choice, never put yourself in a passive position, take the initiative.

This is Chris' core life experience after living for three lifetimes.

So, when Chris found himself in a passive position, he ran away.

This place is not safe, I'm going to make a strategic shift first.

This way of running away is not the best, but it is very suitable for Chris.

Now Chris has been running for three days. The caravan consisting of more than 50 people and ten four-wheeled carriages is traveling within the Bohemian Empire and heading towards the Kingdom of Bagnia.

Chris had almost no impression of Bagnia, and he knew nothing about the situation outside the capital of the Bohemian Empire.

This trip will allow him to truly understand part of the Bohemian Empire for the first time.

……

After three days of riding in a carriage, Chris painfully discovered through practice that it was not an enjoyable experience.

The main reasons are nothing more than these two: the four-wheeled carriage has no shock absorbers, and if a small stone on the ground is crushed by the wheels, the vibration caused will be transmitted to Chris's butt.

It's okay to have it happen once in a while, but if it keeps shaking, that's not good.

Second, the road environment in the Bohemian Empire is really hard to describe. It is okay within a hundred kilometers of Inner Yama, with cobblestone roads and sandy roads.

This made the carriage even bumpier.

So much so that Chris automatically jumped off the carriage and walked with the others.

Walking is certainly tiring, but it is also more comfortable than sitting in a carriage. Only when his legs become weak will Chris, like everyone else, take a short break in the carriage.

In addition to the pain in the buttocks, the harsh road conditions also caused great trouble to the team.

The ten four-wheeled carriages in the team were each pulled by two horses. Theoretically, the power was sufficient. However, due to the uneven road surface, Chris needed to push the carriage with others every time he went a certain distance.

Originally, five people were assigned to one car, which was also full of goods. Chris originally thought that the number of people was too many and a bit unusual, and he wondered if others would notice something was wrong.

However, when Chris pushed the cart for a day, entered a small town at night, stayed in a cheap caravanserai, and lay on a large bunk bed, he no longer thought this was a problem.

Five people for a four-wheeled carriage is definitely not enough!
Because in addition to pushing the carts, sometimes the team would encounter problems such as damaged roads that prevented the carriages from passing.

At this time, people other than the driver need to come forward with shovels and spades, shovel away the floating snow that is in the way, dig out the frozen hard soil and stones to fill the hole, and allow the carriage to pass.

The hard work of road construction made Chris question his life. On the fifth day after leaving Neama, his hands were covered with several large blisters even though he was wearing plush gloves.

The road conditions in the Bohemian Empire are too bad.

If you want to get rich, you must first build roads. Don’t the Bohemians understand this truth?
In addition to the bad roads, the people he met on the road also opened Chris's eyes.

Before setting off, Isaac said that when doing business in this country, one would encounter many places where taxes were collected. Chris subconsciously thought that they were city taxes.

It turns out Chris was naive.

When crossing a glacier, the caravan was stopped and asked for money. The people who stopped them were not tax officials, but a group of Bohemian soldiers in gray uniforms. Their reason for collecting taxes was also very noble.

"We built the wooden bridge you're going to cross, so you have to pay a toll..."

"How much will it cost?"

"A person needs one copper to cross the bridge, and a carriage needs ten coppers."

Having said that, there are about a hundred Bohemian soldiers guarding the bridge.

Although their weapons were only spears and they had no firearms, although they were so thin and weak that they looked like they couldn't defeat the caravan, although...

However, Isaac gave the money anyway.

Otherwise, what else do you want to do, fight with them here, or force your way in?
"What happened to them?"

After the convoy crossed the bridge, Chris asked Isaac, he was curious about the identities of these gray-robed soldiers.

"They were the Bohemian reserve army, semi-professional soldiers... They collected land taxes, which was part of their military funding."

Isaac's explanation, which was nothing new, really opened Chris's eyes. Coming from the 21st century, he was used to seeing the People's Liberation Army, but this was his first time to come into contact with such a feudal army.

Then they crossed the bridge and it was getting dark not long after they started walking. A small town appeared in front of them. As usual, Isaac would let the caravan rest and spend the night there, and sell some goods at the same time.

Then, when entering the town, the caravan encountered a tax collector with three followers, who started shouting loudly as soon as he came up.

"This is Taka Town, the territory of Earl Kadi. According to the Earl's laws, any foreign caravan wishing to enter the town must not only present an Imperial merchant permit but also pay a tax based on the number of vehicles...

One car, one silver coin."

This toll is quite steep!

Isaac immediately stepped forward to negotiate.

"Sir, this is our merchant's permit... If we don't enter the town and camp outside, can this tax... be reduced?"

“No~~Can’t~~”

The arrogant tax collector drew out his tone, and Isaac immediately understood what he meant. He walked quickly forward, closed the distance between them, and put a round object into his palm.

"Hmm~~" With his rich experience, the tax officer immediately knew that the two silver coins in his hand were of very good quality and had not been scratched on the outer ring by unscrupulous merchants.

The tax officer was beaming.

The taxes belong to the Earl, but the silver coins are his own. Besides, the tax rules are actually a bit expensive.

"Actually, you can camp outside. As long as the carriages don't enter the town, there's no problem!"

"Thank you, kind sir."

Isaac smiled along and gave the tax collector's three followers a small gift... a small bag of coarse salt the size of a palm for each of them, which made the latter smile happily.

The convoy began to set up camp under the leadership of Isaac. The smugglers he brought with him were all veterans at work, and they were very skilled in arranging the convoy and setting up the tents.

The young people Connie brought were not so good. When they were working, they were obviously slow and awkward, and it was obvious that they were novices.

This is not the worst. The worst are the ten players following Chris.

Chris didn't work because he was the financial sponsor of the convoy's trip. Pushing the car and repairing the road made him exhausted.

And the players followed Chris and stopped working.

However, just because players don't work doesn't mean they are slacking off.

On the contrary, they also made great contributions to the caravan.

One player bought a lute from somewhere. He found an open space on the roadside outside the town and started playing a cheerful tune.

Three players with good voices sang folk-style songs loudly to the accompaniment of a ditty, while the remaining players, including Lin Ruoyu, linked arms and danced a dance similar to the Soviet Commissar Dance.

What shocked Chris the most was not only that all the players could dance, but also that the players who sang sang in Bohemian, and the songs they sang were ones he had never heard in his previous life.

That’s great, this means that the cheerful little songs sung by players are either adaptations of real songs or even original creations.

No matter which one it is, it represents their musical talent.

"Oh, I'm so stupid."

Chris slapped his head in frustration. If he had known that the players he summoned were so talented, he should have taken them with him... Forget it, is it useful to think about this now?

Chris sighed.

The cheerful tunes and chorus singing soon attracted the residents of the town to come out to listen to the music and watch the fun.

More and more people gathered, and when Isaac noticed the situation here, he took the opportunity to have someone push a carriage over and started selling goods on the roadside.

The caravan didn't actually carry much merchandise, just coarse salt, homespun cloth, iron pots, broken tea leaves, and some miscellaneous needles and thread.

These were the smuggled goods that Chris gave to Isaac, and the cost was not high.

So, when Isaac sells things here, the selling price is the retail price after taking into account the tax costs on the road.

Even so, the goods of Isaac's caravan were still very affordable in the eyes of the townspeople. They were cheap and of good quality, which made them want to buy them.

Among these goods, the homespun cloth sold by Isaac's caravan is particularly special. The cloth has many patterns, bright colors, and is particularly thick. In the eyes of the townspeople, it is a first-class good product.

Town residents who knew the value of the cloth rushed to buy it. Those who had some capital even bought more and then went to more remote rural areas to sell it for secondary sales, becoming middlemen.

Out of ten truckloads of goods, two were sold out right here.

In order to keep the cart empty, Isaac also purchased goods from local merchants. Through barter, he got two local donkeys, a cart of wooden poles, and a cart of silage.

Under the barter model, both parties are very satisfied and each makes a small profit.

Then at this time, the town tax collector appeared again.

Isaac knew the rules, so he paid the latter a tax of five silver coins and half a bag of coarse salt as a handling fee.

After paying the money, the tax collector stopped harassing Isaac's caravan, and the caravan was able to continue on its journey the next day.

"Half of the homespun cloth was sold."

"It's okay. I have connections who can help me buy cheap homespun cloth. What's the name of the next city?"

"Duo Kang."

"Well, then, let's stop by Duokang. I'll go into the city."

Traveling as a merchant is a very noisy and tiring job, but thanks to the existence of players, Chris does not lack happiness along the way.

There is no shortage of singing, sketches, song and dance, etc.

The ten players were very patient, they entertained themselves and found their gaming pleasure along the way.

Because of their outstanding performance, not only did Isaac give tips to the ten players as encouragement, but the latter also received copper coins from the townspeople during the performance, which was quite a lot if you roughly counted.

Therefore, the players did not miss any opportunity to perform while on the road.

At the same time, because of Chris's presence, the illnesses encountered by the caravan during the journey did not cause permanent casualties. Occasionally, someone fell ill, or was hit or frostbitten, and Chris could provide timely treatment.

As Chris was treating the patients, he discovered that one of the ten players was actually a medical student offline. He then made the latter the caravan doctor and announced to the public that this was his student.

Well, Chris is so shameless. It is obvious that the player’s medical skills are better than his, and the latter should be his teacher.

However, although the player's medical skills are very high, Isaac and Connie's people trust him more because of the reputation Chris has accumulated from practicing medicine in Neama.

Therefore, this theory of reversing Tiangang allows the caravan to receive medical treatment from players, and when stationed, the caravan can not only sell goods and perform songs and dances, but also provide medical services to townspeople and villagers.

The profits earned by the caravan therefore increased significantly. After each night, Isaac would distribute dividends to all the fellow traders, which offset the resentment caused by trading in the wild in winter.

The profits from trading in winter are high, but it is also extremely hard work. In addition to taxes along the way, Isaac's caravan also encountered several robbery attacks. Fortunately, each time they were safe and no one was killed.

The caravan was thriving and getting closer to its destination.

Isaac predicted that when spring arrived, the caravan would reach the border between the Bohemian Empire and the Kingdom of Bagnia.

　PS: Because the journey is not the main storyline, I will skip it quickly.

　　If you have any questions, please tell me and I'll see if I can fix it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)